
Profit from •* 

A TOWN LOT 



H. Cecil Shepp&rd 




Class _^fkL__ 



Book. 



CoipglitS - 



CORRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



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#4>223.oo Profit 

in one year on 
a town lot 



H. Cecil Sheppard 



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THIRD EDITION 

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Published by 

H. CECIL SHEPPARD 

Berea, Ohio 

1919 



Trff^rafrsar^iirrtiTTrtitT^i^ 



-<d55 



Copyright 

1919 

By 

H. Cecil Sheppard 



C1A528647 



JUL -3 1919 



PREFACE 

I have set down for publication in this book, the dis- 
astrous and profitable experiences covering the six 
years from the time I first interested myself in 
chickens, until in the sixth year I took a net profit of 
$4,223.00 from my small poultry plant on a town lot. 
That year my books showed sales of $9,515.00, with 
expenses for advertising, feed bills, wages, and so on, 
amounting to $5,292.00. The benefit of my experience 
up to the time of revising the third edition, has also 
been incorporated. 

I would have gladly paid $100.00 during the first 
years of my experience, could such information have 
come to me. It has been no small task to write and 
revise this book, but I feel that it will be worth while. 

Fraternally yours, 




JUST as no two eggs are quite alike so no two people 
can succeed in quite the same manner — but the 
"other fellow's" experience costs less and saves time 
(when we are wise enough to admit it!) so why not 
save dollars by using it? In your selling, look for 
ideas as fresh as "just laid" eggs. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I— A LITTLE PERSONAL HISTORY 13 

Back to the country — The Town Lot — Giving up my road business — 90% 
perspiration. 

CHAPTER II— THREE "P'S" IN THE POULTRY POD— Pleasure, Pep, Profit.. 17 
The pleasure in poultry — Getting birds with pep — Making a profit — The 
backyard laboratory — Deciding on the best breed — Starting on a small scale 
— Hens or horses? — Ending the second year — $1910.00 at end of fourth 
year— Making the $4,223.00. 

CHAPTER III— INCUBATORS AND BROODERS 23 

Preliminary testing of incubator — Looking after the eggs — The brooder 
and its care — Preparing it for baby chicks — Getting ready to receive day- 
old chicks. 

CHAPTER IV— BABY CHICKS— SOME DO'S AND DON'TS 29 

How Mother Nature planned them — Don't over-feed — What to feed — 
Brooders and colony houses — Making baby chicks work — Chick physiology 
— How often to feed — Green food — Sprouted oats — Winter quarters — 
Automatic feeders — Piano box colony house. 

CHAPTER V— GETTING THE EGGS 38 

Importance of male bird — When superb vitality counts — Diagrammatic com- 
parison — Specifications of an ideal male — Feeding for egg production — 
Housing for egg production — Some egg facts. 

CHAPTER VI— POULTRY HOUSES 45 

Building for egg production — For warmth — Specifications for economical 
houses — Water tight, well ventilated, well lighted. 

CHAPTER VII— MAKING SHIPMENTS 49 

January inquiries — Boxing and shipping eggs — Shipping baby chicks — 
Shipping stock. 

CHAPTER VIII— FOUR SALES ESSENTIALS 53 

Make them look — Make them like — Make them learn — Landing them — 
How to, do it — A dozen and one sales pointers. 

CHAPTER IX— ADVERTISING TO SUCCESS 57 

Visiting the shows — Building good records — Jacob's follow up — Advertis- 
ing pays — An unpleasant experience — The first orders — Increasing my 
advertising — Getting business by letter — What about stationery? — A mat- 
ing list or catalog — Service principle in advertising — Appeal to the 
beginner. 

CHAPTER X— WHAT TO DO EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR 65 

CHAPTER XI OPPORTUNITY IN POULTRY 70 

The chicken industry — The auspicious time — Possibilities in poultry — 
Pepful poultry for pale people — Saving on the cost of living — Begin 
now. 




CHAPTER I 

A Little Personal History 

SUPPOSE it would be a good plan to commence at 
the beginning ! So I am going to tell you my 
actual experience in the poultry business, step by 
step, from the first year when my total sales were 
$160.00 to the gross income of $9,515.00 the sixth 
year — all on a town lot. 

Back to the Country 



Cleveland was my home for a number of years. While there my 
health was not the very best. It looked to me pretty much as though 
it were a choice between getting farther away from the nerve-racking 
push and bustle of the city, and spending more time in the great out of 
doors, or of prematurely joining the ranks of the countless slumbering 
army. Naturally, I resolved to go "back to the country" and soon selected 
a location. 

Mrs. Sheppard and myself looked over a number of places on the 
southern shore of Lake Erie. We decided to settle in Berea where 
conditions were ideal, good schools and colleges to educate the children, 
and all modern conveniences. It is located on three trunk lines of railroads 
and a corking good electric line, so that shipping facilities are excellent. 



The Town Lot 

Well, I leased property for a couple of years, but at the end of 
six months we were so deeply in love with the location that the property 
became a Sheppard possession. We moved to Berea the latter part of 
March, 1906. It was a revelation to me. There we were, living on a 
nice town lot, the air pure and sweet, and as Spring pressed on and as 
Nature budded forth in all her beauty, the grass grew green and the 
air became redolent with perfume from a wilderness of fragrant blos- 
soms. The songbirds returned and added greatly to the surroundings 
with their cheerful and sweet songs. As the weather became warm, we 
(my wife and children) commenced fixing up our lawn and preparing the 
soil for a garden. After the ground was nicely cultivated, we com- 
menced to set out trees, berry bushes, grapevines, sow the garden seed, 
and set out the plants. By the first of June everything seemed to fairly 



14 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

jump out of the ground to meet the warm rays of the Summer sun. 
Midsummer found us enjoying luxuries of our bountiful harvest of fresh 
vegetables from our own garden. It was quite a contrast to what a city 
man had been accustomed. It was not only a crop of good vegetables, 
but a crop of gladness and joy as well. Our city friends envied our 
good fortune. My wife could prepare an excellent meal from the 
garden, with a few nice springers added to the bill of fare. A little 
later our flowers blossomed forth in all the colors of the rainbow. The 
next season we enjoyed a generous crop of red raspberries and straw- 
berries. Two years later our plum trees began to bear. The next year 
the peach trees bloomed out in their superb style and joined the plum 
trees in giving us a nice lot of delicious fruit. The next year the 
cherry trees began to bear. 



Giving Up My Road Business 

The five years' experience directly preceding the year in which I 
made a net income of $4,223.00 from chickens on a town lot, caused me 
to sever my connections with the concern for whom I was traveling, 
and go into the chicken business in earnest and not as a "side line," 
which it had been up to that time. It took me a great many months to 
make up my mind regarding this change, because I have many warm 
friends among the people I visit and it almost seemed as though — so 
firm had become our friendship — that everywhere I set my foot was 
"home, sweet home." And of course after so long a term — travelling 
the same territory for twenty years for the one house — I had a mighty 
good business and enjoyed a fairly satisfactory salary, as salaries were 
in those days, and I had the friendship and confidence of several of 
the largest merchants in my line. 

When I resigned my position on the road, I was not only "passing 
up" the rewards of twenty years' hard work but was also losing the 
social visits to all my old acquaintances on the road, and what was 
worse still, was the severing of my pleasant business relations with my 
company. In the long years I was with them there wasn't anything that 
ever came up to disturb our pleasant relations. They were very good 
to me and I appreciated, it. In fact, all the employees were treated with 
consideration, and it seemed like one big, happy family. It surely did 
seem like leaving home to sever my ties with this firm. My chickens 
were demanding more of my time, and I was really forced to give up 
my road position or my chickens. I chose the former and sent my 



ON A TOWN LOT 



15 




Members of American Poultry Association visiting Sheppard's Farm. Artist 
Sewell of R. J. P. fame took the party unawares with his camera while they were 
having refreshments under the shade of the big oak. 



resignation to my house, to take effect four months later. When I laid 
aside my grip I wasn't sure that I could resist the temptation of mak- 
ing a trip. At first it seemed very unnatural, but as time pressed on, 
I became so taken up with my chickens that I gradually became weaned 
from my former work. Of course, I missed my old friends on the 
road who were so generous to me. If perchance any of them read 
this book, I want to say that I haven't forgotten them and shall always 
have pleasant memories -of them. Across the broad -miles I extend the 
glad hand for a hearty shake. 

On the cover of this book I use a figure which, to some of you, 
may seem impossibly large — $4,223.00 is a sum of money not to be 
sneezed at. Fourteen years ago this would have seemed like a tremen- 
dous sum to me. But in 1912 it became a reality. What I did, thou- 
sands of others have since done — many of them much better than this. 
What I did, you can do. These figures are not too big for you to reach. 
There is no logical reason why — if you make up your mind you will 
reach them — you can't do so. You are a man or woman of ordinary 
intelligence, else you wouldn't be reading this book, and I here firmly 
state that any one person with average intellect, can succeed in the 
chicken business if the ideas set down in the following chapters of this 
book are followed. 



16 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 



90 Per Cent Perspiration 

I certainly am not a wizard. I believe that genius is 90% perspira- 
tion and 10% inspiration. There is nothing magical about my suc- 
cess or method. I started with a very limited knowledge of the poultry 
business and a still more limited capital. Common sense was probably 
my greatest stock in trade. 

I am going to tell you as simply and plainly as the nose on a 
man's face, how I have managed my chickens and of course you can 
do what appears practical to you. I don't expect you to agree with me 
on every detail, but on the principal questions, my 'methods are 
thoroughly practical. There is no theory in this book. It is all the 
result of practical experience. I am not attempting to give advice — but 
simply stating what I have done and how I have done it. 





ON A TOWN LOT 17 

CHAPTER II 

THREE "P'S" IN THE POULTRY POD 
Pleasure, Pep, Profit 
The Pleasure in Poultry 

HERE is nothing new about this thought, but unless 
people have a natural liking for poultry so that they 
can get real pleasure out of the work — because there 
is a lot of hard work about it ! — they had better not 
start the business even on a small scale. There in- 
variably is, of course, a certain pleasure following 
the accomplishment of profitable work — but this kind 
of pleasure follows after the profit and does not go 
right along with the work required to earn the profit. 
Although I now sometimes have as many as five thousand birds at one time 
on my farm, I never grow tired of these beautiful, active creatures — they 
have a fascination for me. They should for you, — and I believe they 
will — if you are to secure a genuine pleasure, taking your loss along with 
the profit, getting your bumps — not such stiff jolts as I received, I trust 
— and then profiting by the experience which I set down in this book, 
as well as your own experience. 

The Backyard Laboratory 

The very best laboratory is one's own poultry yard. You can take 
the same methods I have used and am using and put them into practical 
experience in your own "laboratory" every day in the year, and by avoiding 
many of the pitfalls and eliminating many of the stumbling blocks, 
your pleasure with poultry will be just that much more increased. 

Making a Profit— Getting Birds With Pep 

In order to make profit from poultry it is very necessary that you 
secure birds with abundant vitality — plenty of pep ! A writer on poultry 
once said that the surest way to secure vitality, vigor and constitution 
is by the "survival of the fittest" — in other words a process of elimina- 
tion by means of the ax ! Well, to a certain extent I found that true. As 
I went more into the commercial end of the poultry business, I saw 
the imperative necessity of having two attributes in my birds. First, 



18 



$4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 



They 

should 

be 

eager 

to 

lay. 




vitality — or pep — whatever you want to call it. Second, the habit of 
systematic laying. 

Deciding on the Best Breed 

You can secure these two admirable qualities either by a very care- 
ful selection of the right breed, or by a process of elimination on your 
own plant. Although it costs more to begin with, to purchase the right 
breed, I am convinced that considerable time is saved. You secure a 
flying start at once. 

You may decide to start with several breeds, as I did. I kept four 
the first year, and at the end of the first year I found I had three 
breeds too many, and decided to keep just one. It did not take me long 
to decide on the breed to keep. The first year I found it very profitable 
to be getting a good yield of eggs during the cold winter months, when 
eggs were high and when my neighbors were not getting any. In 
cutting down the number of breeds I kept the breed that produced egg^ 
abundantly during the winter months. This is one of the secrets of the 
business— to get a breed that will produce eggs practically all the year 
round, and especially when the price of eggs is high. You will find 
there is a tremendous demand for chickens of this kind, and if you have 
them your neighbor wants them and is willing to pay you a good price 
for a setting of eggs or for a pen of birds. 



ON A TOWN LOT 19 



Starting on a Small Scale 

I have told you the importance of selecting the proper breed. Now 
you ask whether one ought to start on a small or on a large scale. The 
commercial agencies will tell you that 90 per cent of the business houses 
fail some time during their lifetime. Probably the principal reason for 
this is because they start on too large a scale. It is like a boy learning 
to swim. If he jumps in deep water he drowns, but if he stays in shallow 
water until he learns, he then can go into deep water with safety. 

On the other hand, I started my chickens on a small scale, and from 
the very beginning they were paying for their keep and a little more. 
I found it better to have the chickens working for me than for me 
to be working for them. I would suggest that you start in a small way 
and buy good stock to start with. You will find that it pays. There is 
always a demand for good stock, while the demand for poor stock is 
limited. It is a common error to invest in expensive chicken houses and 
buy cheap stock. Whatever breed you buy, go to some reputable 
breeder and secure good stock. Remember that it is quality of stock that 
pays the large dividends, and not the expensive poultry houses. You can 
raise good birds from good stock in a cheap building, but you cannot 
raise good birds from poor stock, no matter how good your buildings. 
If you have twenty-five, fifty or one hundred dollars to invest, buy a 
pen of five birds in place of a dozen. 

I made the usual mistake beginners make by buying ordinary stock 
to start with. I went to a certain breeder and bought from his utility 
flock, and from other breeders the same quality. At the end of the 
first year I found I had made a serious mistake, as I had lost a year's 
time and had nothing but utility birds — something that intelligent chicken 
people don't want. It taught me a lesson, however, and I resolved to 
get the very best birds money could buy. At the end of the first year I 
had discarded my other breeds and had secured the best stock that money 
could buy of my favorite breed. At the end of the second year I had 
a flock of strictly high-grade birds, and found I was on the right road 
to success. 

While this book is written mainly for the information and inspiration 
of the family with but limited space for their poultry plant, it has a 
direct application to the flock kept by the farmer's wife, and the far- 
mer's children as well. 



20 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

Hens or Horses? 

Mrs. George L. Russell, of Chilhowee, Missouri, said something of 
intense interest in the "Fruit-Grower" a couple years ago. She compared 
hens with horses and started out by asking a few questions. 

"What if the whole flock should be stolen? What if a storm comes 
and kills every hen on the place? What if they all get sick and die? 
You will admit none of these things are likely to take off the whole 
flock. But granted they do, why, then, we have not lost any more capital 
invested than we have when one mare lies down and dies. And should 
these calamities befall a flock of chickens, with a comparatively few dol- 
lars one can start over and in one spring raise enough pullets to fill the 
laying house. 

"It is much easier to raise a few dollars to buy a flock of hens to 
start over than it is to raise enough money to buy one good brood mare. 

"If we were in the commercial egg farming business, this would be 
a story of larger profits, but as we are only farmers, the chickens are 
considered just one of the many farm crops, the same as hogs, cattle, 
oats, wheat and corn. 

"As is the case on the majority of the farms, the farm woman cares 
for the chickens. It is a real pleasure to me to do this. In fact, I 
cannot find the time to spend with them that I would like to, as there 
are many other duties, besides being a mother, to attend to on the farm. 

"The work with my chickens commenced with a worn-out hen house, 
surrounded by a dense plum thicket, where there was small chance of the 
sunlight ever appearing. You have all seen such houses with a row of 
nests and a path in front, the roosts occupying almost the whole interior, 
leaving no place for the hens to scratch and exercise. 

"Even with this poor equipment, the hens paid $112.00 the first year. 
This astonishing fact was hardly believed by my husband, but the figures 
were there to prove it, and he at once became interested in the chickens, 
building them a new house that fall." 

My chickens gave me pleasure as well as increased my bank account. 
I mated up my first pens about February 1. My chickens had been lay- 
ing all fall and winter, so the eggs were in splendid condition to in- 
cubate early. I set my incubator about February 15 and had my first 
chicks hatched from eggs from my own breeding pens, early in March. 
I commenced shipping hatching eggs the latter part of February. At the 
end of my first fiscal year, which ended August 1, 1907, I found I had 



ON A TOWN LOT 21 

sold hatching eggs to the amount of $71.00. I sold a few cockerels to 
the meat market and two for breeders. Adding these amounts to what 
I got for eggs which I sold to the market, I found that my first year's 
revenue was about $160.00, besides having a fine lot of little chicks and 
a breeding pen from the previous season. I had thirty-one hens and 
was surprised to learn they had earned a little over $5.00 each. 

Ending the Second Year 

At the end of the second year, I had more breeding pens than ever, 
and many more chicks. I found that my sales had reached a grand total 
of $542.96. I naturally began to think the chicken business was all right. 
Before leaving Cleveland I had heard of several men who had failed. I 
could see that their failure was due to mismanagement or by wanting 
to get rich too quickly and starting in too heavily. I could see that it 
was no fault of the chickens. They were proving that if they were given 
a chance they would pay handsome dividends on the investment and for 
the time spent with them. 

I started my third year with more encouragement, and, as I found 
the poultry journals were doing me a splendid service, I again increased 
my advertising. I had raised a larger flock and had no trouble in dis- 
posing of it again. I mated more breeding pens and still found that my 
supply of hatching eggs was not equal to the increasing demand. At 
the end of the third year my sales figured $890.51 for the year. In ad- 
dition to this I had on hand a still larger flock of chicks and breeding 
pens. 

$1,910.10 at End of Fourth Year 

At the beginning of the fourth year I could see a grand future dawn- 
ing for this remarkable breed, so again resolved to increase my capacity. 
At the end of the fourth year I found my sales for the year to be 
$1,910.10. The demand had steadily increased the fourth year, so I made 
still greater preparations for increased business for the fifth year. I wasn't 
disappointed in my expectations, as you will readily see when I tell you 
that the sales for my fifth year amounted to $4,094.00. 

My business kept right on growing and at the end of the sixth year, 
I found that I had more than doubled the fifth year — my book showed that 
the sales amounted to $9,515.00. 



22 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

Making the $4,223.00 

I kept about ninety females for my breeding pens, and about ten 
males, selling off my culls for table use. I farmed out a lot of utility 
stock to farmers. By doing this I was enabled to supply a heavy demand 
for utility eggs that came from birds that had plenty of range and eggs 
strong in fertility that produced vigorous stock. I sold many eggs from 
$2.50 to $30.00 per setting, and raised about five hundred youngsters. I 
followed the ideas described in this book. At the end of the year I 
found I had sold $9,515.00 worth of stock and eggs. My expenses, in- 
cluding advertising, feed bills, boy's wages, etc., amounted to $5,292.00, 
leaving a balance of $4,223.00. 

These figures do not include the eggs and springers used on my table. 
The eggs and stock sold to the market would run about five hundred dol- 
lars. The balance of $9,015.00 was from sales of hatching eggs, baby 
chicks and standard bred stock. 




ON A TOWN LOT 

CHAPTER III 



23 




Incubators and Brooders 

OME one once asked me this question : "Is a hen's 
birthday when the egg is laid or when it is hatched?" 
I cannot answer! Nor have I been able to find a 
solution to the following questions : 

Whether first the egg, or the hen? 
Tell me, I pray, ye learned men. 
The hen was first, or whence the egg ? 
Give us no more of your doubts, I beg. 
The egg was first, or whence the hen? 
Tell me how it came or when. 

But I do know that "In the beginning is the egg." 
So, with your permission, I will here discuss my experience with in- 
cubators and brooders. 

As soon as we got nicely settled in our Berea home, we decided that 
the next thing was some chickens. So, off went my order for an incubator. 
Just a short time before this, I had visited a small poultry farm and was 
delighted by the beauty of the birds, and pleased with their utility as 
shown by the fact that they were working their heads off laying eggs in 
January. Some of them were busy in their nests. Others were trying to 
crowd them off. Others were cackling after laying. There seemed to be 
a general atmosphere of hustle and bustle in the hen houses. It certainly 
seemed unusual to observe so much industry in hen houses during mid- 
winter — and this condition made a great impression on me. 

I placed my order for eggs from these fowls, because the first thing 
I was after was a breed that would produce winter as well as summer 
eggs — not occasionally but frequently and systematically. The eggs ar- 
rived in the spring, a few days later than the incubator. 



Preliminary Testing of Incubator 

The incubator was placed in the basement, and after regulating the 
machine so that the thermometer registered 102^ degrees, I tested out 
the machine for two or three days to be sure that I had it well regulated 
before the eggs were put in. I didn't want to take the chance of a 
short hatch. A great deal had been said to me about the expense ot 



24 



$4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 




Type of brooder used when I commenced. These brooders prove very satisfac- 
tory. Have been replaced by a Modem Brooder System, which is illustrated a few 
pages on. 



''experimentation." and I wanted to avoid this so far as possible. The sug- 
gestions and instructions made by the manufacturer of the incubator were 
followed as carefully as possible, coupled with a few common sense ideas 
I had myself. And then I was all ready to put in the eggs ! 

The lamp was filled with the best oil procurable — not too — full, in 
order to allow for the expansion of the oil, and then I "lit up" the in- 
cubator. First with a moderate flame until after the heater was warmed 
through, because a new wick will cause the flame to creep up, and if the 
wick is turned too high at first, the lamp is likely to smoke and accumulate 
soot on the burner. It will then burn with a large flame until the burner 
is overheated and a . puff of gas blows it out. In case the burner 
becomes overheated so much as to blacken the metal, it should be scoured 
bright or replaced with a new one — and the heater drum should be 
cleaned out thoroughly. The chimney of heater wants to fit closely to the 
burner. 



Looking After the Eggs 

Before placing them in the machine, I allowed the eggs to settle for 
twenty-four hours and then put these precious eggs in with eggs from 



ON A TOWN LOT 25 

other different varieties. I had decided to try out several different breeds 
before deciding upon any one. None of the eggs were left standing on 
end — all were lying flat in the incubator. Since that time I was away 
on the road a considerable part of the time, I drafted the services of my 
faithful servant to run the incubator during my absence. 

Like all beginners, we were very much interested in the development 
from day to day, and I received frequent "bulletins," reaching me at 
various stops on nry route. 

Well, at the end of the third day of this first hatch, the eggs received 
their first turning and the next morning were turned again and cooled for 
about ten minutes. The tendency was for the temperature to rise the 
third week, when the chick had commenced to throw off animal heat. By 
slight adjustment of the regulator, we had no trouble in keeping the de- 
sired temperature. It is very important to maintain as nearly uniform 
temperature as possible. Every day the lamp was filled and the wick 
trimmed. Eggs must never be piled on top of one another, but always laid 
flat in the incubator. 

Much better results will be secured by operating the machine in the 
basement, because it is easier to maintain the necessary uniform temper- 
ature. If the basement or cellar is too dry, then place a pan of water 
under your machine to furnish sufficient moisture. 

I have said something about cooling eggs. This is done by allowing 
the eggs to remain out of the machine until they are cooled. If the 
weather is severe and the room is cool, it will not take them long to 
reach the desired coolness. A good way to tell when they are sufficiently 
cooled off, is to place the eggs to the lid of your eye, and if they feel 
neither warm nor cold, they are at the proper temperature to return to 
the machine. This "eye lid" test is a good one! 

This scheme was followed until the nineteenth day when the eggs 
began to pip. When we saw the first egg pip we closed the door and did 
not open it again until we saw the hatch was well over. The first week 
we ran the machine at a temperature of 102^ degrees, and the second 
week 103 degrees. At the end of the third week the temperature went up 
to 104 degrees or a little more, but under no condition did we allow it to 
go above 105 degrees. 

What causes the hatch to go over the twenty-first day? The machine 
has been run a little too cold or the eggs have been cooled a little too 
long. If the hatch comes off before the twenty-first day, it is because the 
lamp has been run with the blaze a little too high. At the end of the 



26 



$4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 




Interior of a section of one of my brooder houses. This one building has a 
capacity of iofioo chicks a season. 

nineteenth day the eggs began to pip, so we realized that we had run the 
machine just about right. At the end of the twentieth day the chicks 
had begun to appear. At the end of the twenty-first day the hatch was 
completed and all of us were proud as peacocks and happy as newlyweds 
with the results. We had hatched eighty-nine lively little babies, and you 
may be sure it was difficult to conjure up a more fascinating picture! 

By this time my brooder had arrived and it was made ready to receive 
the little folk. I planned to be home on Saturday and Sunday, and found 
a great deal of satisfaction in guiding the destinies of these little folk, 
keeping their brooder sweet and clean, and in raising them in the "nurture 
and admonition" of the plans that seemed most practical to me. We raised 
all but two of them. One died a natural death and the other was killed by 
accident. 

After the first hatch was taken off, I reset the machine and hatched 
ninety chicks. It was then early in July. The weather had then become 
very warm, and they died off rapidly because I hadn't provided sufficient 



ON A TOWN LOT 27 

shade to protect them from the hot July sun. I have since proved that 
midsummer chicks can be easily raised by furnishing them plenty of shade, 
fresh water, and keeping them in small flocks. We know this can be done 
even in the hot Southland because we have had experience in raising lots 
of mid-summer chicks on my Southern Branch Farm. Little chicks are 
very delicate birds. Too much chill or too much heat soon finishes them, 
but after they get real muscle in their little bodies and begin to harden 
up, they are much more thrifty and not so likely to be pounced upon by 
disease. 

The Brooder and Its Care 

We commenced to prepare the brooder for the chickens as soon as 
the eggs began to pip. Most all of the standard make brooders come in 
"knock-down" — form or in sections, with directions for putting them to- 
gether. It only took an hour or two to assemble our brooder and get it 
ready for business. We were then ready to light the lamp and heat up 
the brooder, ready to receive its rioting, fluffy mob of lively infants. 

Let me again emphasize the importance of using good oil in the 
brooder as well as the incubator. We trimmed the wick daily, as recom- 
mended by the manufacturer of the brooder, and started with a small 
flame. As the brooder got warm, the wick was turned up a little higher. 
By following this plan when the brooder is first started, there will be 
no chance to have any of the trouble I mentioned in connection with the 
incubator. Being human, I had a little trouble. This made me more care- 
ful because the job of cleaning the soot from the drum and pipe is not 
an agreeable one and it can be avoided with a little care. The drum and 
pipe must be kept clean. 

Preparing It for Baby Chicks 

While being heated, the brooder was placed level on level ground, 
and then banked up around the edge with earth to keep the wind from 
blowing under the bottom. I placed it facing the east so that the chicks 
could get the warm rays of the early morning sun. I next hung on the 
wall of the brooder, a hopper containing fine grit, charcoal and beef 
scrap. Then put about one-half inch of coarse lake sand on the brooder 
floor. The next day I had the temperature registering 95 degrees, which 
is about the right temperature for the brooder to receive the chicks. I ran 
it for a couple days before the chicks were ready to occupy it, so I would 
be sure we had the "hang" of the proposition all right and would be able 



28 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

to keep up a uniform temperature, which, of course, must be regulated to 
a certain extent, with the warmth and brightness of the sun. When the 
sun is shining brightly, the wick can be turned down. Be sure to run a 
new brooder for a few days before putting chicks into it, in order to get 
it well regulated. This will save you the disappointment and expense of 
losing many baby chicks. 

The first hatch came off largely on the twenty-first day, and as the 
weather was cold, I left them in the incubator another day to get thorough- 
ly dried out. Later in the season, when the weather was warmer, they 
were removed to the brooder as soon as the hatch was well over, as the 
confinement seemed too close for little chicks when the weather was hot. 
They need fresh, dry and warm air — not too much moisture, no chill, no 
excessively hot weather. 



Getting Ready to Receive Day-old Chicks 

Millions of da3 r -old chicks are now purchased from poultry specialists 
who reside at a distance from the purchasers. I would like to suggest 
certain preparations that ought to be made for the reception of these day- 
old chicks. On arrival the box in which they have been packed should 
be carefully opened in a room before a fire, if the weather is at all cold. 
It is absolutely necessary that the birds be kept warm and dry. If these 
babies are to be raised under a broody hen, the chickens should be kept 
warmly indoors until evening and then, after she has settled down, quietly 
introduce them to their new "mother." We suggest that a second broody 
hen should be kept in reserve in case the first one objects to raising an alien 
brood. I am taking it for granted that the hens have been carefully dusted 
with insect powder and are free from insects. 

If it is decided to bring up the chicks in an artificial brooder, this 
can be cleaned and warmed to receive the baby chicks, just as I have dis- 
cussed the matter in preceding paragraphs. About 90 degrees is a suitable 
heat for the sleeping chamber. See that there is plenty of good oil in the 
lamp and that the wick is burning clean and bright. Test the brooder 
thoroughly before the arrival of the baby chicks. There is absolutely no 
difficulty about working a brooder. It is very simple but the maker's in- 
structions should be followed. On a warm spring day, when the sun is 
brightly shining, very little artificial heat will be required, but of course 
you have got to make sure that all is cozy and comfortable for the night, 
which may be chilly and damp. 



ON A TOWN LOT 



29 




CHAPTER IV 

BABY CHICKS— SOME DO'S AND DONTS 
How Mother Nature Planned Them 

OTHER NATURE has made very wonderful provi- 
sion for the nurture of newly hatched baby chicks. 
They require no food for the first two days except 
the water with the chill taken off, when they are put 
into the brooder. Mother Nature has taken care of 
their wants by permitting the absorption of the yolk 
of the egg in their bodies. This is just why it is not 
only possible but easy to send day-old chicks by rail, 
or road, or steam, for long distances. I have shipped 
day-old chicks safely, more than two thousand miles but, usually, a forty- 
eight hour journey is ample for the young explorers. In order to break 
these long distance shipments of baby chicks and give the greatest satis- 
faction, I have established a branch farm in the far South, and at this 
writing am negotiating for one in the extreme West. 

Don't Over-feed . 




I was amused to have a young man write to me that he had a good 
hatch but had lost a little chick. On examination he had found that it 
had swallowed the yolk of an egg, which had killed it. If the chicks are 
fed too soon, the yolk of an egg does not become absorbed in time, and 



30 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

the natural result is just what it would be if a small child stuffed and 
gormandized with more food than he could take care of in his digestive 
tract — they droop and die. 

V/hat to Feed 

It is perfectly natural to feel that the baby chicks ought to be fed. 
But don't be in a hurry about it. It is better to let them go without food 
a few hours too long than to feed them too soon. After the chicks had 
picked at the sand for a few hours, I placed clover chaff or chopped 
clover hay under the hover for bedding. I use this because if they eat 
any of it, it will not injure them. If you use sawdust or something similar, 
the chicks are apt to eat more or less of it before they distinguish be- 
tween that and what they should eat, and they are liable to become 
"stuffed" with the wrong sort of material. 

The gizzard of the chicken is its feed mill and ordinary coarse sub- 
stances are required to grind the food, hence it encourages early vitality 
to furnish them with clean, coarse sand at once. 

If the weather permits, I allow the chicks on the ground for an hour 
or two for the first time about the fifth day, or when they are six days 
old. If the weather is mild, they can remain out longer. In cold weather 
care should be taken to see that they can find their way back into the 
brooder, and not allow them to stand on the cold ground and get chilled 
through, which is likely to prove fatal or stunt their growth later. After 
they learn the way into the warm hover of the brooder they will run in 
whenever they get cold. If the weather is cold they should be tempered 
to the cold ground by degrees by allowing them to stay out longer each 
succeeding day for three or four days. 

Brooders and Colony Houses 

It is a good plan to keep the chicks in the brooder in the morning 
until the grass becomes dry. They should be given green food of some 
kind from the start. In case that green clover cannot be secured for 
them from the lawn, some sprouted oats will make a good substitute. 
On a subsequent page you* will find directions for sprouting the oats. As 
the chickens grow older the flame can be turned down and the heat reduced 
by degrees. The second week 90 degrees is about right for them, the 
third week 85 to 90 degrees, and the fourth week 80 to 85 degrees. If 
the weather is warm they will commence to desert the hover when they 
are five or six weeks old and remain in the exercising room of the 



ON A TOWN LOT 31 

brooder. During the early spring months give them 80 degrees until they 
are six or eight weeks old, and after they are ten or twelve weeks old the 
weather has moderated sufficiently to take them from the brooder and 
place them in a piano-box colony house that is described on page 36 
I keep them in these houses until they are taken to their quarters. The 
cockerels are separated from the pullets when they are taken from the 
brooder. I have the parks containing these brooders plowed and culti- 
vated every spring and sowed with rape seed. This produces a splendid 
green feed up until the snow flies, and it also makes a splendid shade. 
It furnishes them with lots of bugs and worms, which are generally found 
on such plants. At one end of the park 'I planted two or three dozen 
hills of sunflowers, which make excellent shade and give a crop of seeds. 
It is in here that they have their best times and flourish. When the 
cockerels are two or three pounds in weight I sell off the culls to the 
market and the balance are kept in these colony houses until the late fall, 
when they are taken to their winter quarters. After the pullets are four 
months old they are put in their winter quarters, in order that they will 
not be disturbed when they are getting ready to lay. 

Making Baby Chicks Work 

Take as one of your mottoes in feeding chickens that, "If they will 
not work, neither shall they eat." Teach them to work by feeding them 
in litter, so that they will have to scratch and dig around for what they 
eat, and keep this up as long as they live. On the third day I feed them 
hard-boiled eggs (boiled twenty minutes) mixed with bread crumbs thor- 
oughly dried, or corn bread will make a good substitute. The coarsest 
ground oat meal obtainable is a very safe food for the first meal. It 
has been called a perfect chick food. 

At the beginning it is a good plan to mix chick feed in lake or any 
other coarse sand. This will teach them industry and as they develop the 
muscles in their legs and bodies, naturally makes them stronger chicks. 

Chick Physiology 

Strange as it may seem, the little fellows thrive on sand and tiny 
bits of flint. The chicken has no teeth and never will have, and needs 
something hard, brittle and rough with which to grind its food to pulp 
when it reaches the gizzard — the "feed mill" of the chicken. The crop 
is simply a large pouch low down in the neck, into which the food is 
shovelled, awaiting the process of digestion. Shown herewith is a rough 
diagram of various parts of a chicken's anatomy. This will show pretty 
well how food travels on its way down the digestive tract. 



32 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 




y~\o 



(1) The mouth; (2) the throat, through which the food passes to 
(3) the crop, which is a storage tank where the food rests until the 
gizzard (5) is ready for it. Between the crop and gizzard, where the 
food is ground, there is an enlargement (4) called the stomach. At (6) 
is shown the small intestine, to which is fastened the unassimilated 
yolk (7). Through the little opening at (8) this yolk keeps passing into 
the intestine, where it is absorbed into the chick's system. Thus you 
will see that when food is given before the yolk is entirely assimilated 
you have food coming from two directions, each kind battling against 
the other. At (9), the caecum, or lower intestine, you will note two 
tube-like extensions. These are the places where worms may lodge, and 
are the seat of many bowel troubles with the older fowls. Over-feeding 
crams the caecum full, and this condition is generally indicated by a 
pasted-up vent (10). 

I venture to say that fully 80 percent of the mortality in raising baby 
chicks is caused by improper feeding, and one of the most serious sources 
of danger is in the moistening of food. Dry food and then good, clean 
water, which lets the chick do the moistening for itself in the proper 
proportions, is the safest way. Nature has taught them what they require. 
We don't know. Of course baby chicks can be raised successfully with 



ON A TOWN LOT 33 

wet mashes — but it certainly takes more care and to my way of thinking 
is not Nature's plan. Don't pamper and overly milk feed young chicks. 
Prepared foods containing powdered buttermilk are very beneficial. 

How Often to Feed 

For the first day or two, chicks should be fed every two or three 
hours. For the next week, four times daily is sufficient and then three 
times daily. Be very careful about not overfeeding. One of my greatest 
difficulties when I found it necessary to be absent on the road, was to 
find any one to feed the chicks without overfeeding. As I stated before, 
it is better to underfeed them than to overfeed, but there is not much 
danger of overfeeding when chick feed is mixed in the sand where they 
have to scratch and work for it. Watch and see that they have what 
they can eat up clean — and no more. 




Cut of brooder made from a piano box. 

After they are a week old a hopper should be placed before them 
containing beef scrap, bran, fine charcoal and grit, a hopper for each. 
After the chick is two or three months old, a few handfuls of wheat 
can be added to the chick feed, and the wheat can be increased by adding 



34 $4223.00 PROFIT IN OXE YEAR 

more even- week until they become accustomed to the whole grains. If 
cracked corn and katir corn can be obtained, feed a mixture of three 
parts wheat, two parts cracked corn, and one part of kafir corn. This 
will make excellent growing feed for them until they are four months 
old, when any other grains may be added that can be secured in the 
market, such as buckwheat, oats, barley and any other grains that the 
chickens will eat. A good formula to go by is to use about 50 percent 
wheat where three kinds of grain are fed and 40 percent where more 
than three kinds are used. This grain is small, easily digested, and is 
rich in protein and mineral matter. Corn when fed alone has not enough 
protein and too much fat. Buckwheat and barley are also rich in fat. 
During the winter months corn ought to be fed in larger proportions and 
should constitute at least 50 percent of the feed during the cold weather. 

Green Food 

Green food should not be overlooked when chicks are small. In the 
very early spring sprouted oats make a splendid green feed for them. 
As soon as possible, sow a bed of oats, cover the top of it with one-inch 
poultry netting, which should be placed about six inches from the ground. 
The chicks will eat the tops off and they will grow up again. Take six- 
inch boards and stand them around the edge of the bed. driving sticks 
in the middle to keep the wire from sagging. The wire can be nailed 
on the top end of the board, which will make a good arrangement for 
this purpose. 

The little fellows prefer this green feed to anything that you can 
furnish them, and it is always there for them to work on. By the time 
the oats are through growing the chicks will be large enough to eat any 
green feed that is supplied them. 

As the chicks grow larger, it is important that they are furnished 
with plenty of charcoal and grit of a larger size than they required when 
they were smaller. The charcoal and grit can be secured in three sizes — 
one size for the baby chick, a medium size for the growing chick, and a 
large size for the matured fowl. Their winter quarters should be provided 
with a hopper containing bran, beef scrap, oyster shell, grit and charcoal, 
a section for each. During the winter months, when the hens are con- 
fined, they should be fed green bone, about three pounds to a hundred 
hens per day. Skimmed milk, curdled thick, makes a good substitute for 
green bone. I get splendid results without feeding mashes. But mashes 
are good if not too wet. A mash moistened with milk makes fine feed 
for hens. To insure the proper amount of exercise during the winter 
months, it is best to put the grains in litter and compel the hens to scratch 



ON A TOWN LOT 35 

for them. Green food must not be overlooked. When it is not con- 
venient to feed sprouted oats, alfalfa meal, cabbage or mangels are 
splendid. 

Sprouted Oats 

Sprouted oats is the best green feed obtainable, and makes a good 
cheap feed and is a great tgg producer. The fowls are fond of it. Feed 
at noon as much as they will eat up clean. To prepare, take a pail half 
full of oats, soak in water for about one day, drain water, and empty 
into a box with half inch holes bored in the bottom. Sprinkle night and 
morning with warm water. When oats commence to sprout, spread them 
out into other boxes two inches thick, and sprinkle twice daily with warm 
water. Keep oats well stirred each time they are sprinkled, and in about 
a week or so they will have sprouted. The length of sprout will depend 
on the temperature of the room. When sprouts are two inches long, 
commence to feed to the hens, and by the time the sprouts are four to 
five inches long you will have them all fed, and in the meantime have 
another lot ready to feed. 

Winter Quarters 

You will bear in mind that the most perfect winter quarters are those 
that have conditions nearest to summer. I do not mean that the tempera- 
ture shall be as warm as summer, but to have other conditions as near 
like what your fowls are accustomed to in the summer as practical. The 
sprouted oats, a generous box of gravel, plenty of dust in their box, 
clean quarters, fresh air, and no drafts can be had with little expense and 
trouble, and will make conditions summerlike to them to a large extent. 
If it is convenient, throw a basketful of old plaster in one corner, and 
it will be surprising the amount of this they will consume, and it is good 
for them, as the lime is needed for them in the formation of the egg 
shell. This will make a good substitute for oyster shell. 

Automatic Feeders 

The automatic feeders are a fine thing for growing stock or breeders 
in the summer time. When the flocks are confined to their winter quar- 
ters I would much prefer to feed in litter. The chickens must be kept 
active to get the best results, and I find the best way to keep them active 
is to keep them working in a good supply of litter on the floor. Hopper 
feeding is all right to a certain extent. The mineral matter, such as 
oyster shell, grit, animal matter such as beef scrap, and a dry mash may 



36 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

be fed them in this manner. Keeping the fowls supplied with a dried 
mash in the hopper insures them always having enough to eat. In case 
they are not fed sufficiently in the litter they will finish their meal at the 
hopper. If the chickens are always ready for you when you enter the 
pen with the feed pail you will know that they are not being overfed. 
If they are hungry they will flock around as soon as you enter. If they 
are indifferent when you go in you will know that they are being overfed. 
So it is time to cut down on their rations. 

Piano Box Colony House 

In another chapter I discussed incubators and brooders, but perhaps 
while I am talking over with you your baby chicks, you'd be interested in 
my experience with a home-made colony house — many of which I still 
use. After the hatches came off, the fluffy babies were transferred to the 
brooder — and it is remarkable to see how they thrive and grow. They 
are always anxious to get out and when the robins return bringing spring 
with them, I let the growing youngsters into their sunflower parks. 

The beautiful days of May come all too soon — and chicks grow 
splendidly. They are now large enough so that sexes may be separated. 
A colony house made from a piano box such as will be found illustrated 
on page 33 will make a comfortable and economical quarters for growing 
stock. I removed the bottom of the box, then placed two pieces of 2x6 
under the box, sawed off the corners next to the ground, which will make 
it easy to move. These pieces are placed about twelve inches from the 
outer edge of the box and the floor nailed to them. I placed a few bricks 
under them so that the box can be raised high enough to afford the 
chickens splendid shelter on rainy days. I placed the box on a high spot 
so that the ground was dry under it, as the chicks prefer to go under the 
box rather than go inside during the daytime in case of any rough 
weather. After I had the runners secured I next divided the front, which 
was the bottom of the box and is now open, by nailing a 2x4 between 
the bottom and the top at the front edge. Next I nailed a 2x4 of the 
same length against each side, on the inside flush with the front. This 
served to hang the doors on. I made the doors out of 1x2 and covered 
with one-inch mesh. If you are likely to be troubled with weasles it 
would be a good idea to tack wire cloth on the frames instead of one- 
inch poultry netting. This wire cloth can be secured any width and as 
fine as you wish. The half-inch hardware cloth is sufficiently fine. These 
doors answered the purpose very nicely until the weather became a little 
cool in the fall, when I tacked muslin over the wire. After the doors 
were on I covered the top of the box with roofing paper, stopped all 



ON A TOWN LOT 37 

the cracks so that there was no draft, and next put in the roosts. These 
I placed about ten inches apart, and there was room for three or four 
of them. These boxes make splendid quarters for the growing stock and 
will be a good place for them until the weather gets cold in the Fall or 
until they are ready to be taken to their Winter quarters. 

The colony houses can be placed in the parks or in an open field. A 
cornfield makes an ideal location on account of the shade and the ground 
being tilled frequently, giving the chickens lots of loose earth to work 
in and a chance to get earthworms. I used two parks for the colony 
houses, one for the males and one for the females. In May I found the 
chicks growing nicely, and those of the large males that did not promise 
to make good breeders I sold for broilers. 

Care should be taken not to force the breeders during the breeding 
season or any other time. The breeding pen should not be fed wet 
mashes, because this has a tendency to produce the fatal white diarrhoea 
in the chick. In case that the eggs are not as fertile as they should be, 
it will be found that the male is so gallant that he defers eating until 
the females have the feed consumed. In such cases as this it is necessary 
to feed the male by himself once or twice a day for a while, and every 
other day he should be supplied with a little ground raw lean beef. 




38 



$4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 




CHAPTER V 



GETTING THE EGGS 




Importance of Male Bird 

X my former edition of this book I made the statement 

"The male is half the pen and should be a bird of 

good type." I feel satisfied in my own mind, after 

recent experiments, that the male bird is more nearly 

seven-eighths of the pen. The hen is a factor — but 

by no means the dominant one. If a breeder mates 

a hen of great laying capacity with a cockerel whose 

parents were moderate egg producers, the chances 

are that the "kin" will take after the male, and also 

be moderate egg layers. If a hen of moderate egg-laying capacity be 

mated with a cockerel whose parents held a high record, the chances 

are the progeny will also take a high place in egg production. 

Admittedly the greatest profit from hens is in the eggs— and par- 
ticularly winter eggs. It costs a certain amount to feed and care for a 
pullet until it reaches the laying age. And then there is a constant 
monthly "overhead" and feeding expense, all of which must be figured, 
and for which the hen must be made to pay before she produces a profit 
for the owner. It is important, therefore, to bear in mind the necessity 
of getting male birds from a prolific egg-laying strain. If you want more 
eggs, one of the cheapest and most effective ways to secure them is to buy 
best cockerel possible instead of purchasing an entire flock of pedigree 
hens and then mating them with a second-rate male bird. You get prac- 
tically all the inherited ability to lay, transmitted by the cockerel. 



ON A TOWN LOT 



39 



When Superb Vitality Counts 

In my last catalog and in other advertising which I have recently 
published, I have emphasized — somewhat to the surprise of many of my 
business friends — the idea of superb and supreme vitality. I even went 
so far as to show a photograph of one of my birds making a "20 yard 
dash" across one of the yards. I will not tolerate a droopy slacker hen 
or cockerel — and at the present time we very seldom have to contend with 
such birds. When they appear, and imperfections are discovered, the 
cockerels are fattened for broilers and soon killed. 




Diagrammatic Comparison 

If you will compare the two diagrams, you will observe the alert, 
sprightly, vigorous carriage of the parallelogram shaped body and the 



40 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

weak, supine aspect of the triangular shaped body. Keep away from 
birds with triangular shaped bodies. Select cockerels with plenty of pep 
and fight, with glossy feathers and well developed, large heads, with 
well formed combs of brilliant color, strong, prominent eyes, proud 
appearance, full, deep breast, well rounded abdomen, powerful legs, set 
quite far apart, a broad, strong back — and a fellow who has a loud, clear 
crow to welcome the rising sun. 

Specifications of an Ideal Male 

In my selection of the ideal Ancona male, I would look for the 
following points : I'd pick out a fellow with a long back, slightly sloping 
downward to the tail, with no apparent angle at the tail. His tail should 
be carried at an angle of 40 degrees, but don't be afraid of the tail being 
too low. The head, and especially the comb, should be as near perfect 
as possible. The comb is the first thing that is noticed in a bird and is 
naturally very prominent. It should have five serrations ; three or four 
is no serious objection, because the tendency is for the points to increase 
in number. The comb should stand erect, the blade continuing a flowing 
curve upward from the line of head, free from all side spriggs. Do not 
use a male too light in color. He should be dark, with as little white 
in his wings and tail as possible. The shanks should be yellow, or yellow 
mottled with black. Females of good shape, with a long body, with the 
tail carried at an angle of about 35 degrees, good head points, comb of 
good size with five serrations or less, free from side spriggs and folds, 
well mottled, with as few white feathers in the tail and wings as possible. 
The shanks should be yellow, or yellow mottled with black. If the male 
bird has a solid yellow shank, the female may have a little more black 
on the shank. A combination such as this will give you splendid results. 
If the male bird is very dark the female birds may have more white. 
By mating them for a season or two you can determine what results you 
will get from light or dark colored birds. The tendency is to breed 
lighter, so it is a good fault to breed the birds dark. 

The Rose Comb Ancona may be mated the same as the Single Comb, 
excepting the comb. The principal point to note is to see that the male 
bird is strong in the points where the females are weak. If the male 
bird has not a good spike on his comb, care should be taken to secure 
females that are strong on this point. 

Breeding pens to get best results, should not have over fifteen females. 
I have seen twenty females mated to a good vigorous male with splendid 
results, but this is unusual. 

Put the right kind of a cockerel with second grade birds, and you 
are much more likely to secure a generous supply of eggs, than if you 
put a second grade cockerel with an entire flock of pedigree hens. 



ON A TOWN LOT 41 

Housing for Egg Production 

When you. have secured your pullets with the inherited tendency to 
lay large numbers of eggs, you have only begun. These pullets have to 
be carefully tended until they reach the creative stage and then they must 
receive the treatment that will bring the egg-laying tendency to its finest 
fruition and this means proper housing and proper feeding. Keep the 
ground free from taint and open to the action of the air and sun. Keep 
the houses scrupulously clean and nest-boxes inviting with fresh hay or 
straw. These things matter very much ! 

Feeding for Egg Production 

There certainly is no mystery about the problem of feeding the right 
sort of food in the proper proportions to encourage heavy egg yield. The 
ratio of albuminoids to carbohydrates should be as one in five. The albu- 
minoids make flesh — eggs ! Carbohydrates supply the heating energy. One 
way of working out the question in terms of food is as follows : — One 
pound bran, one middlings, one maize meal, one fish meal and one half 
clover meal. One of soya-bean meal may be added when not too expen- 
sive. As I have said, these meals may be given moistened with warm 
water or fed dry, just as they are, but in that case the dry mixture must 
be fed out of a specially constructed box called a hopper. 

Green bone, fresh from the butcher's, as a part of the food — say one- 
third — on every alternate day, encourages pullets to lay quickly — but be 
careful about "forcing" the bird. Sprouted oats or sprouted wheat are 
economical feeds and excellent aids to hen fruit. 

Next in importance to food for egg-yield, is the supply of water. 
Without water there would be no egg and no fowl. Don't keep hens 
waiting one moment to drink! If the hen has to wait a long time, the 
potential egg may vanish and where two eggs would have been laid, with 
ample liquid available, only one will materialize. Keep plenty of fresh, 
clean water before your hens. 

Four important reasons why a constant supply of fresh water should 
be kept before laying hens, are as follows : 
1 — Water is used to soften food for digestion. 
2 — Water, in the form of blood, acts as a common carrier and keeps the 

body vigorous. 
3 — Water constitutes about 75 percent of the egg. 
A — Water is very important in equalizing the temperature of the hen's body. 



42 



$4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 



Some Egg Facts 

The demand for eggs has always been, and probably always will be, 
ahead of the supply. An egg is something that can be marketed on either 
a modest or large scale, but always marketed. It is never a drug on the 
market. 

The word "egg" comes from the Anglo-Saxon oeg. Chaucer and 
other early writers use the forms ey, eg, egge. It was really surprising 
to me to find how many expressions and products got their name directly 




With good birds you, too, can do this 
or better 

from the egg. For instance, the first watches ever made were egg-shaped 
and were sometimes called "animated eggs." The finest artists have 
used delicately tinted birds' eggs as color models — the exquisite shades 
painted by Nature on these shells being matchless in harmony. 



ON A TOWN LOT 43 

It was interesting for me to learn that our ocean transports carding 
our men to France, carry approximately 25,000 eggs each trip. France 
has always been a great country for eggs, and before the war, in Paris, 
they figured to allow each person 180 eggs a year. 

A great many people think that eggs are good for the voice. Egg 
-jlvA lemon juice beaten together are recommended for hoarseness. Charles 
II of England presented a favorite singer with a silver egg filled with 
guineas, wittily remarking, "Take this; I am told that eggs are good for 
the voice.*' 

I could sit here and talk for an hour on the romance of what we call 
"a common hen's egg" — I could call your attention to the Jewish people 
who taboo pork but are a remarkably healthy race. x\s a people they 
make great use of eggs — even the poorest giving them preference over 
other foods. A man once said that if, for every pig kept by private 
families, a flock of hens were substituted, there would be less patent 
medicine required and a general improvement in health. If you will stop 
to think of it, you will realize that fewer individuals show an antipathy 
for eggs than for most foods — in fact no honest appetite rejects them. 

Right here it might not be out of place for us to give consideration 
to the food value and chemistry of the eggs. I am showing a sketch of a 
typical Ancona egg. The "Famous" Ancona egg will weigh two ounces 
or slightly under that. Standard authorities give the following proportions 
of chemical elements in the dry substance of the average hen's egg: 

Carbon 53% to 55% ■ 

Nitrogen 15% to 16% 

Hydrogen 7% 

Oxygen 21% to 22% 

Sulphur 1% to 2% 

Phosphorus 5% 

Eggs are splendid food for trained workers. Ericsson, the inventor, 
labored at least twelve hours out of twenty-four to a ripe old age; his 
breakfast for every day of the year was two poached eggs. Weston, the 
pedestrian, while walking one hundred miles in twenty-two hours, con- 
sumed from sixteen to twenty raw eggs. 

Contrary to the thought which prevailed years ago, eggs are easily 
digested — more so than meat and most vegetables. Not only are eggs good 
mental food, but they sustain the body as well. They are about eighty-two 
calories in each Ancona egg. So much about eggs. 



/ 




ON A TOWN LOT 

CHAPTER VI 



45 



POULTRY HOUSES 
Building for Egg Production — for Warmth 

HAT constitutes a successful poultry house? I should 
say one that keeps the bird Mn perfect comfort and 
health, and enables them to produce the largest yield 
of eggs. Of course you don't get eggs from poultry 
houses — but if you take the same identical birds and 
put them in one house and then change them to 
another there may be a decided difference in the egg 
yield just because of the conditions provided by the 
"fowl" dwelling. 
I am certain that a light and airy house will encourage egg laying and 



jtpfL* *W~i 


w 



that a dark, stuffy house absolutely will 

egg production are : 

1— food 
2— light 
3 — air 



not. The three big factors in 



Specifications for Economical Houses 

An open air poultry house is recognized by practically all prominent 
poultry men to be the most satisfactory for laying flocks. On page 60 
will be found an illustration of the type of laying houses used on my 
farm. This building is 322 feet long and can be built any length desired. 
It is 20 feet deep. If the house is more than 8 feet deep, it would be 
a good plan to locate windows at the back of the house as well as at the 
front. One-quarter of the front of this long house for laying flocks, is 
open and the opening is covered with one-inch poultry netting on the 
outside. Frames are covered with a medium grade cotton and operated 
from the inside so that the attendant can raise and lower them and leave 
as much as desired. During the fine weather these spaces are left entirely 
open. During the cold weather, when the thermometer registers from 
zero to 20 degrees and below, the curtains are kept down all the way. 
These curtains of cotton also keep out rain, snow and strong wind. 

A glass window every 12 feet, lets in light in case of stormy weather 
when the curtains are kept down. There are very few days that the 
curtain cannot be raised, and I find it makes a very practical house. The 



46 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

foundation is made of cement and runs below the ground level eighteen 
inches, and is fifteen inches above. This stops all drafts and makes a 
comfortable place for the birds. For the first two of three years I would 
recommend the earth floor. After that it would be necessary to replace 
the earth with fresh dirt or put in a wood or cement floor. The roof is 
made of a good grade of paper roofing, the sides are built of double V 
siding and lined with tar paper on the inside. The partitions are 12 feet 
apart, and every fourth section is built solid of boards, air-tight. This 







i 



^^*j* 




Group of day-old chick shipping cases 

stops all drafts. Tike all other poultry buildings, the laying house should 
face the south. The front of the building is 8 feet in height over the 
foundation, and the back of the building is 4 feet high. The dropping- 
boards are put in against the back wall and run the full length of the 
building. They are about 3 feet from the ground. Cotton curtains are 
placed in front of the roosts to protect the fowls in extreme weather. 

The studding is put in twenty-two inches apart. A door is placed in 
the middle of each pen, the width of the studding and the height of the 
opening. This door is made of one-by-two strips and covered with one- 



ON A TOWN LOT 47 

inch mesh. It is fastened from the inside to prevent anyone from entering 
the building, and is used for the chickens to go in and out, and also by 
the attendant for taking the litter in and out. 

It will be found' that in such buildings as these, healthy, vigorous 
and happy stock will be raised. I have stood across the fields fifteen 
hundred feet distant from the houses in the dead of Winter, in zero 
weather, and could hear my birds singing their merry song as in the 
good old Summer time. The important features or the most valuable 
assets the modern poultry house can have are plenty of light and fresh 
air; and the open front is the one that fills the bill. 

The chicken parks should be as generous as the ground will permit. 
The ideal park would have a southern exposure. It is a good plan to 
plant fruit trees in the parks, and these will furnish the chickens with 
shade as well as the table with lots of fruit. The parks should be culti- 
vated often in the early Spring. If the parks are long enough it is well 
to fence off the part farthest from the laying house and sow it with 
rape. This not only furnishes the chickens with an excellent green food, 
but also keeps the ground sweet and fresh. It is important to have the 
parks built on high ground as well as the houses. In case the high ground 
cannot be secured, be sure that the parks are well drained, because the 
chickens will not do well where they have to stay in parks that are wet 
for several days after every rainstorm. 

Do not overlook the necessity of keeping the poultry houses clean, 
and especially the brooder. The brooder should be cleaned nearly every 
two or three days, and sprayed well with some strong disinfectant. This 
will keep them free from insects and keep the air pure. The litter should 
be changed often. After the chicks are a month old it will be found 
easier to clean the brooder or colony houses by throwing in some fine 
earth. This will prevent anything from sticking to the floors. After they 
are three or four months old the roost may be put in the colony houses, 
and by keeping in a fair supply of dirt it will not be necessary to clean 
them more than twice a week, as the earth absorbs the strong odors. The. 
laying houses should be sprayed once a month during the winter season. 
The roosts should be painted with some good disinfectant every week. 
A mixture of slack lime and crude carbolic acid will make protection 
against vermin and diseases, but as the lime will affect the color of the 
legs, spraying will be found more satisfactory where show birds are being- 
raised. 



48 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

Water Tight, Well Ventilated, Well Lighted 

Success in poultry, although working hand in hand with good houses, 
has really nothing to do with a special design of house. Many of the 
most successful and largest egg farmers in the country have houses made 
on the open front principle, which differ only in detail, and if these 
are good enough for successful men who specialize on egg production, 
they surely are good enough for the amateur or back-yarder or owner 
of a small family flock. A good house need not be expensive. Just 
keep the four principles in mind in planning and building a poultry house. 

1 — Have it water tight. 
2 — Have it well ventilated. 
3 — Have it well lighted. 
4 — Have it free from drafts. 

Possessing those four points, it realty doesn't matter how inexpensive your 
house is, just so it provides healthy accommodations for the number of 
birds you have. 





ON A TOWN LOT 49 

CHAPTER VII 

MAKING SHIPMENTS 

January Inquiries 

HE last part of January, of the first year I did 
advertising worth while, my breeding pens were 
made up and the mating list and catalog all ready 
to be distributed. In compiling the circular or cata- 
log, it is a good plan to give a history and description 
of the breed so as to create confidence in their 
good points. 

Before January was over, inquiries were coming 
in for eggs and baby chicks. I had about the same 
experience with these inquiries that I had with the inquiries for stock 
in the early fall. I found that the mail had become quite heavy, and 
much of the time was occupied answering correspondence. Before Febru- 
ary was far advanced, some orders for baby chicks and hatching eggs 
had been received. My incubators were set and the brooders ready. 

Boxing and Shipping Eggs 

The time was due for the first shipment of eggs, and it was important 
to know how to pack them. There are many different ways, and different 
breeders are indorsing different plans. The easiest way to ship, and one 
of the cheapest, is by the use of the egg boxes manufactured by box 
companies. On page 51 is one of these boxes illustrated. All that is 
necessary is to wrap the eggs in paper and place in the section for each 
egg. Scatter a little bran or chaff over them. Seal the box and it is 
ready to go. This will do for a short haul. But if it is going far I 
would put the box in a basket and tie to the handle so it will not be 
tossed out. A little excelsior or straw placed in the bottom of the basket 
will be a great protection against any careless handling at the hands of 
the express company. These boxes are more desirable for single settings. 
I found round bushel baskets satisfactor}- for shipping fifty or more eggs. 
When orders ran up to a thousand or more these baskets are just the thing. 
Each basket will hold one hundred eggs. In extreme weather I line these 
baskets with paper. I wrap each egg in paper before placing it in the 
basket. The bushel basket should be well lined with straw by distributing 
it around the side and bottom of the basket about two inches thick to 



50 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

make a good cushion in the bottom of it so that the eggs will not break. 
After the straw is nicely arranged in the basket, I start the first layer 
by placing the eggs with small end down. This is the best way for the 
eggs to lie, because it will stand shipment better than if placed on the 
side. After the first layer is placed I scatter a little fine chaff or a 
little fine cut straw over the eggs, then put paper on the top before placing 
the next layer of eggs. This paper prevents the chaff from working from 
the top layer down to the bottom. On top of the second layer I again 
place the chaff or fine cut straw, and always place the paper between 
each layer. I do not put the eggs too close to the top of the cover. Room 
should be allowed for straw between the eggs and the cover. In former 
years I have used excelsior for lining the baskets, but find straw more 
satisfactory, as it will keep out more cold and be a better protection for 
the eggs. On page 46 will be found the picture of a shipment of these 
baskets already packed. The covers are fastened on with basket hooks. 

Shipping Baby Chicks 

The first shipment of baby chicks was due to go early in March. 
The first hatch was off just in time for the first order. It was the first 
experience in shipping baby chicks, and I was naturally puzzled as to how 
to do it. Have received many letters from different ones asking me for 
instructions in shipping stock, eggs and baby chicks, so I am safe in 
saying that these are matters that bother everyone. On page 46 you will 
find illustrated a box for shipping baby chicks. This is a remarkable and 
splendid device for this purpose. It is not only warm and protects the 
chicks against the cold, but also is very strong and has a wonderful 
resistance against hard usage. These boxes are made in three different 
sizes. The smallest size will accommodate twelve to twenty-five chicks, 
the next size will hold fifty, and the largest size will hold one hundred. 
The fact that nature has made provision for the baby chicks to live 
without food for the first three days of their existence makes it practical 
to send these little beauties hundreds of miles with splendid results. I 
have shipped them as far as three thousand miles, but do not recommend 
shipping quite so far. I ship the chicks just as soon as they have become 
dry and their down has become fluffy. 



ON A TOWN LOT 



51 









..„_.' 














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: ■'• '-if* '. : ?ISiasi3 tH; » - '-"A 


jbr 


L^- 


?? 



T/tiy illustrates the boxes I use for shipping hatching eggs. The one on top is 
ready to receive the eggs. The one on the right is packed with eggs and the cover 
partly on. The box on the left is ready for shipment, and contains 15 eggs. 



Shipping Stock 



On page 67 is illustrated a shipping box such as I use for the birds. 
This kind of a box is very desirable because it is light and makes a splen- 
did advertisement for your business. 

These shipping boxes I make in three sizes — No. 1 for a single bird, 
No. 2 for a trio, and No. 3 for a pen of five to eight. The No. 1 size is 
ten inches wide, nineteen inches long and eighteen inches high ; No. 2 is 
fifteen inches wide, twenty-four inches long and eighteen inches high ; 
No. 3 is twenty inches wide, twenty-four inches long and eighteen inches 
high. The ends and bottom should be made out of white pine or poplar, 
and the sides out of extra heavy and extra strong strawboard. The slats 
across the top are two inches wide and should be put on about two 
inches apart. These boxes can be bought with bottom and ends cleated 
ready to nail together, including slats and heavy cardboard sides, at forty 
cents for size No. 1, fifty cents for size No. 2, and sixty cents for size 
No. 3. 



52 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

During the warm summer and fall months the fowls should be pro- 
vided with water in transit. This is done by fastening a tin can to the 
inside of the box. In the cooler days of the fall and winter the water 
will not be necessary if the birds will be delivered within two or three 
days. A good substitute for water is to place a few apples in the box 
with them and thus eliminate the danger of birds having wet straw in their 
box by the water splashing from their drinking can. Where the birds 
are on the way for over the third day, they should be provided with 
water. In the fall of the year, as the weather becomes colder, it is a 
good plan to tack muslin on the top of the box to prevent them from 
getting their combs frosted or getting in a draft at some transfer point. 
A space about two inches wide should be left for the express company 
to water them. 




ON A TOWN LOT 



?o 




A shipment of Sheppard's stock ready to start on the long trip of 
12,000 miles to far away Australia. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE FOUR SALES ESSENTIALS 





i 


irfL* *j§~i 





F four times as many people as are now selling poultry 
and eggs, even on a small scale, were to start adver- 
tising and selling their eggs and poultry, the demand 
still would not be supplied. 

I am going to give you the result of my experi- 
ence right straight through, even on the sales end, 
so that with the facts I put into this book, you will 
have the required information not only to success- 
fully produce poultry and the eggs, but also to mar- 
ket these economically. 

Let me discuss briefly "Salesmanship of Poultry." This consists 
primarily of advertising because poultry and eggs must be sold chiefly by 
mail. There are four sales essentials : 

1— Cause the reader to Look at your advertisement. 
2— Put him in a favorable attitude toward your message. 
3 — Persuade him to Learn about your poultry or service. 
A — "Land" his business. 



54 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

These four sales essentials can be briefly expressed in the four words. 
"Look, Like, Learn and Land." 

Every letter, every circular, every mating list, every catalog, every 
poultry paper or newspaper advertisement, every envelope "stuffer" or 
printed matter sent out on your poultry and eggs, in order to be most 
successful, should be planned with these four essentials in mind. 

Make Them "Look" 

On the opposite page you will find a group of my advertisements. 
Suppose we take a couple of these and analyze them. Take the pair of 
ads, "Boy Scouts" and "You will." First, our job is to make the reader 
of the poultry papers in which these appear, look at the advertisement — 
stop, look and listen. We have got to do something to flag his or her 
attention. Not necessarily to startle them, because sometimes when peo- 
ple are startled, a reaction takes place in their mind, which causes them 
to dislike what you have to say. Be careful about not creating antag- 
onism. Do not have your headings or pictures negative or disagreeable 
in effect. Like poultry, they should be live, energetic and forceful. 



Make Them Like 

The picture of the Boy Scout with the word "Boy" and the picture of 
the hand with the word "You," catch the eye, cause the reader to look. 
Who doesn't like a husky Boy Scout? This pleasure is reflected on the 
message found down in the advertising copy. We believe that the average 
person will at once agree that "You don't enjoy a losing game." Thus, 
you see we have caused the readers both to look and like. 

They may not respond to our advertisement this time, but the next 
time they see a Sheppard message, they are going to be favorably disposed 
toward it and not antagonistic. People don't understand their own frames 
of mind. It doesn't require any definite, disagreeable thing to set edgewise 
against your proposition. Just make a few "bad breaks" with your advertis- 
ing copy or your form letters, and people will avoid you like the plague. 
They quit cold. You won't understand why and they won't understand 
why. So in writing your advertising copy, it wants to be just as happy 
and harmonious with the frame of mind of the reader as possible. 

Make Them Learn 

Now how will we cause them to "Learn"? In each piece of copy I 
plan to tell them just enough so that a strong desire will be aroused to 







^dWS^re Card**, K«-f Yaffil? U^.Mp in ttx W ug Pens 

i//,.l:;.hHii.»»,)» ■»4v,S. ■,--: ,,»-,.: •■ -• . ■: v <■- ■ -.. . 









■- ■ ; 

SHEP-PARD 




56 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

learn more. I hold back all the information and try to get them interested 
to write. for my catalog or one of my books. If you will get a reading- 
glass you will be able to study out some of this copy, and you will see that 
I touch upon, briefly, in each advertisement : 

1 — Egg-laying ability. 
2 — Prize- winning. 
3 — Appeal to beauty. 

so that these three important points are covered in some way in each adver- 
tisement. The big thing, after all, of course, is to get the name of the 
prospect on the "line with dots." Until you get the order, and the check 
or money order as well, nothing has been closed and the proof of the value 
of your salesmanship in advertising depends upon the cash you receive for 
the stock, the day-old chicks or the eggs for hatching you may offer. 

The operating of commercial egg plant and the selling of eggs for 
home use, is another business entirely, which I. will not here discuss. I am 
endeavoring to make it somewhat easier and less expensive for you to sell 
your stock, your day-old chicks and your eggs for hatching. 

Landing Them — How to Do It — A Dozen and One Sales Pointers 

Now, how shall we "land" the prospect who has already sufficiently 
interested himself in our proposition to write for information and learn 
more about our stock? We have got to bring this message to him so in- 
terestingly, so emphatically and so truthfully, that his confidence will be 
inspired to the point where he will feel that we are just the ones who 
should receive his order. Use plenty of photographs, good pictures taken 
of your own birds to illustrate your printed matter. It helps to show the 
picture of the person who is offering the stock — unless he looks like a 
second-story worker. I believe it pays, once in a while, to call in an adver- 
tising man to help you get ideas regarding your headings and to assist you 
in making your advertising as interesting and readable as possible — but 
a still better plan is to have some characteristic style, either your own writ- 
ing or the writing of someone who is a good friend of yours, used in all of 
these advertising pieces so that they will have personality. Don't forget 
that when the prospects write for information they want information. Give 
them the plain facts and plenty of them. Tell them the whole story just so 
far as you can. 



ON A TOWN LOT 

CHAPTER IX 



5/ 




ADVERTISING TO SUCCESS 
Visiting the Shows 

ARLY in my experience I found one of my best adver- 
tisements was showing my birds at both large and 
small shows. But this would have been a poor adver- 
tisement had I not won a major portion of the prizes 
in the particular class or classes I entered. 

At one of the first shows I visited I remember my 
experience. I was showing King William I, a hand- 
some cockerel who had won first at the great Dairy 
Show, London, England, and was naturally proud of 
him. A man admired him very much and asked. my price. I told him one 
thousand dollars. It was fortunate for me that he did not buy him, be- 
cause he has been the foundation of my flock and he has been worth not 
less than ten thousand dollars to me. It does not pay to sell your best 
stock. I never price my best birds. They are always to be found in my 
breeding pen. By doing this I have been able to keep improving my flock, 
and when my customers want eggs from prize winners they get them. 

Building Good Records 

I first built up a good record before I commenced to get out any 
printed advertising other than mere announcements of the stock I had for 
sale. It is one thing to simply list what you have to sell and another thing 
to write this up so interestingly and appealingly that people will be per- 
suaded to purchase it, even if they had not intended to before reading the 
copy. 

I had reached the time when I wished to burn into the mind of the 
buying public the merits of my chickens. In preparing my advertising I 
eliminated every unnecessary detail and made the essential facts as interest- 
ing as possible. I found that concentrated, consistent endeavor brings 
results. 

Continuity in advertising is the greatest essential of success. 

Jacob's Follow-Up 

Jacob once cranked up his dromedaries and set out from Padanaram 
with his wives, kiddies and live stock. An authentic report reached him 
that Brother Esau, the owner of a large Grouch, because of a certain 



58 



$4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 




**<dB 






"Busy Days" Among the Colony Houses on Sheppard's Famous Farm 



swiped birth-right, was roaring to meet him with a bunch of fighters. 
Jacob then started to "sell" himself to his wild-eyed kin. He set apart live 
stock for a gift. But he didn't hand it to Esau all at once. No, no. He 
divided it into six or nine groups and "put a space betwixt drove and 
drove." He was after a series of favorable impressions. He even went so 
far as to halve his own family and possessions — put a space between the 
halves— and join himself to the rear caravan. Saving his heaviest shot for 
the last. If all this isn't safe and sane advertising psychology, then what 
is it? 

You have, to keep after people time after time, sometimes it's the last 
letter that gets the big order. The same follow-up idea applies to using 
papers. If you havn't very much capital, pick out one good paper and stay 
in it every month. Don't drop out unless it demonstrates that it is not pull- 
ing business for you. If it is, stay in and gradually add to your list. It's 
the tap, tap, tap of the advertising- hammer that counts. 



ON A TOWN LOT 59 

Advertising Pays 

I found advertising paid well, although I did not get big returns the 
first year. The second year I advertised more and was pleased to note 
that the returns increased in proportion to the extent I advertised. Each 
year I spent more money for advertising, and have always found the re- 
turns justified it. I want to impress upon you the importance of advertis- 
ing. "It pays to advertise." This is a hackneyed expression, but never- 
theless it is true. It pays to advertise generously. Don't be afraid to 
spend a few dollars advertising in the poultry journals. The money will 
come back and a great deal more with it. Do you know a successful poul- 
try man or a successful business man who has not been a generous adver- 
tiser? I was not advertising long before I was shipping stock to Europe, 
Africa, and the remotest parts of the earth. My advice is, first, get good 
stock ; second, advertise it ; third, give your customers a square deal, and 
you will succeed. Don't become discouraged in case you run across a cus- 
tomer occasionally that you cannot please, no matter how hard you try. 
You will have such experience, no matter what your business is. I dis- 
covered that long before I went into the chicken business. 

An Unpleasant Experience 

There were some things in my advertising experience that were not 
always pleasant. For instance, I started my advertising by using classified 
space in a couple poultry journals. I want to say that I was very much dis- 
gusted and disgruntled with the first results, because I was getting more 
letters from people who wanted to sell me more advertising or something 
else, than inquiries from prospective buyers. But I kept at it and it wasn't 
long before inquiries for stock and eggs were numerous. Then I got up 
my first circular, which was a little 6x9 pamphlet, illustrating it with some 
cuts of my birds, hatching eggs and stock. I started with two pens — No. 1 
at five dollars per setting and No. 2 at two dollars per setting of fifteen 
eggs. I mailed my circular in answer to every inquiry, and did not fail to 
write a short letter in answer to each inquiry, which read as follows. 
"Here's the circular illustrating and describing the birds regarding which 
you made inquiry a few days ago. They're great layers, and I very much 
hope that you will carefully study this circular and then permit me to 
demonstrate their worth." To send a short personal letter with these cir- 
culars in a sealed envelope with a two-cent stamp, will be found to pay. 

The First Orders 

I soon received my first order for hatching eggs. The next thing I 
was up against was to know the best way to pack them. After investigating 



ON A TOWN LOT 61 

the matter I was informed that the basket was considered good. I secured 
a supply of baskets and after wrapping the eggs carefully in paper I packed 
them in a basket with excelsior and sewed a cloth over the top. I gave you 
my later experience in packing and shippings of eggs on a preceding page. 

Increasing My Advertising 

After the first year's advertising, the poultry business looked very good 
to me — it seemed to have possibilities for the future, so I decided to do 
still more advertising the following year. By this time I had stock to sell 
in the fall and hatching eggs in the spring, ^besides lots of eggs for the 
market after supplying an abundance for our domestic use. With the 
increased advertising came the increased amount of business. I com- 
menced my advertising in September. Inquiries commenced to come 
shortly after, and it was not long before I was getting orders for stock, 
and as the season advanced the orders became more numerous. It 
wasn't long before I had sold all the surplus stock. I continued my ad- 
vertising through the Winter and Spring for the hatching season. After 
my stock was sold I commenced returning money, and have been doing 
this very thing every year since, because the demand was greater than 
the supply. I predict that this will be the case for years to come — in fact, 
it looks to me as though the demand will grow every year as the people 
become familiar with the virtues of these great egg machines. Soon after 
my stock was gone inquiries for hatching eggs began to arrive. They 
increased as the season advanced. Before the season was half over I had 
all the orders for hatching eggs I could fill. I had reserved enough 
of my best birds to mate up four pens, and could have sold all the eggs 
from three times as many pens, had I had them. I hatched more chicks 
the following Spring, as I wanted to get ready for a greater demand 
the following year. 

This chapter is more or less of an "experience meeting" taken from 
bumps I have received while traveling on the road and in the poultry 
business since then. The science of salesmanship is of just as much 
interest to a successful poultry man as it is to a successful salesman in 
any line. 

Getting Business by Letter 

There are two ways to make sales : First, by personal interview, and 
second, by letter. I told you a short time ago that by far the best way 
to sell poultry is by letter or "direct by mail." The man on the ground 
finds it somewhat easier to make sales than the man who has to sell by 



62 



$4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 



gffif.tf 


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^ 


IBW' 




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— -~-?/ F dK£ 




! 
m 


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, - .a*. - i 


Jflt 




On<? day's shipment of eggs 



letter, because he can talk with and size up his prospective customers, 
while the absent salesman has to read between the lines the kind of buyer 
he is dealing with. The average experienced drummer knows how to 
approach a buyer almost the moment he sees him. With the mail system 
this must be acquired by reading between the lines of the letter. It be- 
hooves him to conduct his correspondence to get the best results. It is 
here where many a beginner fails. 

In preceding pages I have told of the importance of advertising. Ad- 
vertising is the forerunner of success. The journals have done their part. 
They have brought inquiries to you. They have brught prospective cus- 
tomers to your desk, and now it is up to you to make the sale. The paper 
has done its part when it gets you the inquiry. Now, go after and land the 
business. 

When you receive an answer to your advertisement you have a 
reasonable assurance that the writer is interested, whether he sends his 
inquiry on a post card or a piece of rough paper, or fine stationery, or 
whether it is written with pencil, pen or typewriter. Answer all inquiries 
carefully and promptly. 



ON A TOWN LOT 63 

What About Stationery? 

Use a neat grade of stationery with an . attractive but not amateurish 
letter head, and then a complete descriptive circular or catalog, just 
whichever your business will justify. You wouldn't go out to solicit orders 
wearing a pair of torn trousers, ragged shirt and barefooted, nor should 
you send out cheap stationery with poor printing, expecting to get good 
orders. Keep in mind that the advertising you mail out is your personal 
representative and your honesty and the merit of the merchandise you 
offer will be judged quite largely by the advertising material. Don't handi- 
cap your proposition with cheap printed matter — I say this from my own 
bitter experience and not because I am boosting the game of any printer. 

Yes, it's very important to have good quality paper in your stationery 
and catalog, but it is very much more important to have a good grade of 
stock and a breed with merit. You have got to have the birds to back 
up your sales talk or you won't get repeat business and we couldn't stay 
in business very long if it wasn't for our repeat customers who come 
back and buy from us year after year. When you have quality, you can 
talk quality and your good stationery will be in harmony with the high 
standard of your stock. 

By building your reputation on high-grade quality you will build your 
business on a solid foundation and you will have a trade that will stay 
with you. It will not be a difficult matter to take your customers up 
the four steps of the ladder of salesmanship when you have something to 
sell that is in demand. If you will bear in mind the points I have men- 
tioned you will find that you will not require twenty years' experience 
on the road to sell chickens and hatching eggs, and sell all you can raise. 

Service Principle in Advertising 

There is a service as well as a commercial principle involved in 
advertising. Think of the fact that you are rendering a service to a 
man when you sell him your eggs or stock. Talk of the advantages he 
will gain and be convinced in your own mind that he actually will se- 
cure these advantages of pleasure and profit. Pleasure and profit are 
the two things most interesting to the average buyer. 

Contents of Advertisements 

In writing your advertisements, talk more of fine breeding, pure strain, 
good carriage, beauty, flavor, size and so on — give specific instances of 
egg-laying records and prizes won, try and find little incidents and stories 



64 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

from your daily contact with the birds, that you. can put into advertise- 
ments in chatty style. It is the human, common, ordinary every day 
instances of life that are most interesting to other people. 

Try and carry on your advertising in publications whose readers are 
appreciative of fine poultry and who have the means as well as the in- 
clination to buy it. Change your copy frequently so that you will always 
have a different idea running to make people "look." Advertising is like 
eggs, it must be fresh. 

Appeal to the Beginner 

Keep the beginner constantly in mind and word your advertising for 
his comprehension. If he understands, the rest of the folks will. Re- 
member that the beginners are eager for the best stock, and are larger 
buyers than the older breeders. They are certainly worth catering to. 
Although I have been in the poultry business for a good many years, 
about 50% of my business each year comes from new beginners. This 
is due partly to the fact that each year my business increases accordingly. 
But I am continually wording my advertising to appeal to the beginner. 
When I receive an inquiry from my journal advertising, I send out my 
catalog, together with a friendly letter and I follow this up three times 
to keep my proposition before the prospect and remind him that I am 
ready to serve him promptly. 

Price is secondary to the quality of your stock and price should be 
the last thing about which you talk. You should have the reader thorough- 
ly sold on your proposition before you say a word to him about how 
much the birds are going to cost him. Then he will have the attitude 
where he feels that any reasonable sum isn't too much. 

As a conclusion for these two chapters on advertising and salesman- 
ship, I want to leave those 4 L's. First, in your advertising you should 
put in something in the way of an illustration or heading that will cause 
a great many readers to LOOK. Then, your appeal must be of such a 
nature that it will either make the reader actually smile or feel good all 
over. It will make him LIKE your message in other words. Then it 
should have enough of a "kick" in it and tell him just enough about 
your proposition so that he will be anxious to LEARN more about the 
stock you have to offer. This will result in his inquiry and then your 
printed matter should be of such a nature and your letters should be so 
frank and friendly, that you will LAND him with the least possible 
delay. 




ON A TOWN LOT 65 

CHAPTER X 
WHAT TO DO EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR 

HERE is something to do in the chicken 
business every month in the year. I have 
told you of my experience during the first 
five years, up to the time when I moved 
from the home in Berea with its "Town 
Lot" poultry plant — out to the spacious 
acres of our present poultry farm directly 
adjoining Berea. Now I am going to talk 
over in detail how I conducted the poultry business through- 
out the twelve months of the year. Very little will be said 
regarding some of these months, because they run along very 
much like others, but when any changes in the program are 
to be made, or when any special detail is to be taken care of 
in a certain month, I have jotted it down for your infor- 
mation. 

My year begins with August — this is simply because I 
started my venture during that month. This time of the year 
is generally quiet on the farm. At present I take advantage 
of the dull season to prepare my advertisements. During this 
month I place my contracts for the year's advertising. The 
chicks are well advanced by this time so I can see what I 
have to sell, and what the prospects are for the coming year. 
As grains are cheaper at this time of the year, I buy up all 
the wheat and grain required for the season. By doing 
this I find it very economical, and generally save quite an 
item by buying in August rather than in December. By buy- 
ing direct from the farmer I also save the feed man's profit, 
which is also quite an item. I have found it a good time to 
place my order for shipping boxes, baskets and other sup- 



66 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

plies. If I waited until late in the season to buy these 
things, I might be delayed and might not be able to get them 
when I really needed them. 

AUGUST 

I find little to do with the stock during August, except 
to keep them free from lice. It is very important that this 
is watched closely, and especially the old male birds. 

SEPTEMBER 

September finds the pullets ready for the laying house. 
They should be placed in their laying houses early enough 
to get accustomed to their new quarters by the time they are 
ready to lay. The cockerels have developed sufficiently to 
admit of judging their quality intelligently so the poor 
grades can be sold. It is always good policy to keep the best 
for sale and butcher the rest. By doing this early I have 
more room for my growing stock. The colony houses that 
housed fifty birds comfortably when younger, have now be- 
come crowded since the birds have developed. By disposing 
of the culls at the market, the good birds have a better show. 

The houses are thoroughly cleaned, and buildings that 
are not sprayed every month should be whitewashed at this 
time. The dust boxes are looked after and plenty of dust is 
put in them. The nests are cleaned out well and fresh straw 
put in them. This is done every month or so, and should be 
watched closely in the fall of the year. 

OCTOBER 

October brings the fall rains. The litter is now brought 
in and a liberal supply of straw placed on the floors. The 
fowls are glad to seek shelter from the cold rains, and by 
having a good supply of litter on the floor at this season of 



ON A TOWN LOT 



67 



-~\ 




The above illustrates sliipping boxes. These are light and have sufficient strength to 
stand considerable rough handling. They are described on another page. 



the year, it is an easy matter to keep them active and busy 
by feeding them grain in it. 

In some sections the weather commences to become 
chilly early, and October has placed her leaves on Summer's 
grave. This will remind us that the good old summer has 
passed and the cold blasts of winter are near. It is time that 



68 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

we are making preparations for winter. All the buildings 
should be put in good repair for the rough weather to come. 

NOVEMBER 

In most sections November brings the cold rains and 
rough weather, and in fact in some sections the winter is well 
on the way. Many breeders are careless about their stock at 
this season, and apparently do not take better care of their 
birds than the farmer who allows them to seek shelter on the 
south side of a barbed wire fence. The cockerels should be 
placed in their winter quarters before the weather gets too 
rough, but of course they can be allowed to run during the 
fine days. The changes are sudden at this season of the year, 
so it is a good plan to add a little tonic to their drinking 
water. There are several good kinds on the market. 

WINTER 

The snow generally arrives before December is very old, 
and it is time that the birds are now confined to their winter 
quarters permanently. Fall sales have materially reduced 
the surplus stock, so the winter quarters are not so badly 
crowded as was anticipated. The early shows are now at 
hand, and it is time the exhibition stock is conditioned for 
the show room. 

There is a great contrast in the work it takes to con- 
dition different breeds. White fowls have to be washed, 
which is a lot of work in contrast with the easy manner in 
which a colored bird is prepared for exhibition. To condi- 
tion them, all that is necessary is to wash off the feet and 
shanks in water, sponge off the comb, face and wattles with 
alcohol, and then apply a mixture composed of two parts of 
alcohol, one part of glycerine, and three drops of sassafras 
and five drops of sweet oil to each teaspoonful of mixture. 



ON A TOWN LOT 69 

This preparation may also be applied to the shanks after 
bathing. 

I will probably continue to exhibit my birds during 
January. The sales have kept up and the surplus stock is 
nearly sold off. However, orders are still coming in, but the 
stock is reduced to about what will be wanted for the breed- 
ing pens. 

SPRING 

In previous chapters I have pretty well outlined the 
spring's work, geting the incubator started and "training up 
the baby chicks in the way they should go." With the ap- 
proach of summer it is very important to see that, even 
though your venture is carried forward on a small lot, the 
birds have plenty of fresh air and ventilation. Don't be 
afraid about exposing them to summer drafts. By all means 
protect them from the damp days of spring and summer and 
every chill. But don't be overzealous and shut out fresh air 
and abundant sunlight. Give them all the free range your 
conditions will permit. 




70 



$4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

CHAPTER XI 



OPPORTUNITY IN POULTRY 




THE CHICKEN INDUSTRY 

HE hen has surely made wonderful strides 
during the past few years. The value of the 
products of the hen is greater than the value 
of the entire wheat crop. In 1900 the 
chicken industry started upward with leaps 
and bounds, keeping up such a fast pace 
that today it is only surpassed in value by 
the corn, hay, and cotton. The Government 
reports place the products of the hen at over one billion 
dollars annually. The day is not far distant when the poul- 
try industry will be a two billion dollar industry and will 
lead the live stock and grain growing industries of the 
country. 

The ordinary prophet cannot tell with any degree of cer- 
tainty what she will do in the future. There has never been 
a time when the demand for fresh eggs and dressed poultry 
was so great. When the price of fresh eggs goes up to sixty 
or sixty-five cents a dozen, we wonder who will buy them. 
But still they sell, and the demand is greater than the supply. 
There seems to be a market in all the large cities for more 
fresh eggs than can be obtained during the Winter months, 
when the prices are the highest. There does not seem to be 
any limit to the demand. Prices have increased about 50 per 
cent during the past ten years. People are beginning to be- 
lieve that it is better to eat more eggs, even at a high price, 
than so much meat. There has never been such a demand for 
pure bred stock and hatching eggs from standard bred poul- 
try as at the present time. The prices that good birds bring 



ON A TOWN LOT 71 

are simply wonderful. It is not an uncommon thing for a 
good specimen to sell for one hundred dollars. There was 
a time when a setting of eggs at one dollar was considered 
high. Now it is an easy matter to find many breeders charg- 
ing a dollar for a single egg, or fifteen dollars per setting. 
They not only ask this price but get it, and the purchasers 
are satisfied that they are getting value for their money. 
There are a number of breeders who are getting from two to 
five dollars each for their best eggs. They are giving many 
years of expert breeding in these eggs, and as a rule the 
buyer feels that he is geting all he pays for. 

GOOD TIME TO GET INTERESTED IN POULTRY 

It is good time for every person interested in poultry to 
get busy. If you have a place where you can keep a few 
fowls, make ready for them and invest in a trio or pen of a 
good breed. From such a start quite a nice lot of well-bred 
birds can be obtained by another year. Considering the de- 
mand for Standard bred birds, it would be well to get some- 
thing good in quality. It is not necessary to pay such a big 
price, if they are bought from a reputable breeder and he 
knows what is wanted and how much is to be invested. If 
he cannot fill the bill he will say so. 

From this start a good-sized flock will be raised and be 
ready for business in another year; then hatching eggs and 
probably a few baby chicks, if you have incubators in which 
to hatch them, can be supplied to buyers. There are always 
people in every community who want a few settings of eggs 
or some baby chicks of some good breed, and with a good 
breed some business can be done without much advertising. 
Of course, it will be found that it pays to advertise ; and the 
longer you are in the business, the more this will be appre- 
ciated. With this start you are now in a position to advance, 



12 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

since the first efforts have been successful, and it is reason- 
able to suppose that a much larger business could be handled 
successfully. 

Fresh eggs and broilers can be supplied the market, or a 
business can be made of supplying the demand for baby 
chicks in the vicinity; or one could branch out, advertise 
more, send day-old chicks and hatching eggs throughout the 
country, and develop a business on pure bred stock by selling 
them in trios, pens, etc. After one breed has been handled 
a while, proficiency in judging the merits of the breed will 
come. Because of this, you are in a position to select the 
best of your stock to fill orders, to make up breeding pens, 
or fit the birds for the show room. Here a reputation may 
be gained that will put you among the foremost breeders of 
your variety. This cannot be done in a day, but persistent 
efforts are sure to bring their rewards. There is a mighty 
advertising influence gained by the winning of the blue rib- 
bons. Some breeders have been so fortunate in the show 
room in winning so many prizes that very little advertising 
was necessary to sell all their stock. 

POSSIBILITIES OF THE HEN 

The hen has possibilities, for you never know where she 
will lead you. One thing is certain, and that is hard work, 
carefulness, and caution are bound to succeed. I know of 
one man in particular who started on a small scale, but who 
has succeeded year by year until at present he has a fine plant 
and is doing a nice business. In fact, I am acquainted with 
several men who have started in a small way, and who by 
their careful and industrious habits have built large chicken 
farms from a very small start. Put the hen against time and 
labor and she will never fail. Stick to the hen, and work and 
care will be crowned with success. 



ON A TOWN LOT 73 

For twenty long years I traveled for a large wholesale 
manufacturing company and am now delighted to say that 
I am enjoying a much larger income and taking life easier. 
Although I am just as busy as ever, I am enjoying all the 
freedom the world affords. In place of being bound by the 
obligations an employee owes to his employer, who pays for 
his time and efforts, I feel free to go and come as my 
pleasure dictates. I do not wish to infer that the average 
employee is a slave bound by harsh ties. Not so. My em- 
ployers were very courteous and generous, and were men of 
splendid character. 

I will venture to say that your employer is equally good 
to you if you are trying to be fair with him. I have nothing 
to say against the employee who is doings his duty in an 
honorable avocation. I say, "Stand by your employer and 
give him your best efforts, and remember, you will never re- 
ceive a good salary until you earn it." In case your salary 
is not large enough to supply the comforts you desire for 
your family, don't become discouraged. "Hope springs eter- 
nal in the human breast." I am sure that my experience may 
be an object lesson to you. I would not advise you to resign 
your position and expect to get rich by keeping a few hens. 
I would suggest that you start in a small way. Buy the best 
stock or eggs you can afford. Don't try to succeed by buying 
a five-dollar trio and putting them into an expensive pen. 
Better buy good stock — if you have to keep them in a piano 
box for the first year. 

POULTRY BUSINESS OFFERS GRAND 
OPPORTUNITIES 

After you get started it is an easy matter to improve 
your buildings and add to them as your business grows. I 
believe there is no business under the sun that offers such 



74 $4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 

grand opportunities as the poultry business. Many a man 
packs his belongings and travels far away looking for oppor- 
tunity when there are golden opportunities rapping at his 
door. I know of no business that pays as large dividends on 
the capital invested as the chicken business. It affords the 
busy city man much recreation after his hard day's work is 
over in the shop or office. It gives profitable employment to 
the man whose health is impaired and who is not fit for 
strenuous life that he was accustomed to in his younger days. 
Many a good housewife has found the chicken business a 
great help in assisting her invalid husband in making a 
living. Many a mortgage has been paid off a home by the 
husband raising chickens before and after working hours and 
at the same time enjoying pleasant recreation. 

PEPFUL POULTRY FOR PALE PEOPLE 

For the period of the war, and especially these present 
months of reconstruction during which I am writing, men 
and women have been working under a severe tension. How 
many of your friends are bordering on a nervous breakdown? 
It has been astonishing to me to find how many men and 
women have been burning the candle at both ends — partly 
because of their splendid patriotism, to be sure — but also in 
part due to their negligence of sufficient sunshine, fresh air 
and exercise — the same identical qualities which are so neces- 
sary in producing vital, profitable poultry. 

I believe that there is a definite movement on the part 
of thousands of men and women who have been spreading 
themselves too thin, to seek some interesting and yet profit- 
able outdoor diversion — and it is quite natural that a great 
many of these people should investigate and accept the rais- 
ing of poultry as one practical solution of that very impor- 
tant problem. 



ON A TOWN LOT 75 

SAVING ON THE COST OF LIVING 

I have had literally thousands of letters from families, 
dotted here and there over the entire North American con- 
tinent, telling me that with the aid of a few good laying hens, 
they have helped keep down the cost of living and had more 
than the average laboring man's family (for example) can 
boast in the way of an abundance of healthy food. 

For the little folks there is just as much fun raising a 
few lively chickens, as there is managing a "herd" of rabbits. 
But most boys and girls prefer the beauty of thoroughbred 
poultry to any animal pets, besides they don't require so 
much work and they produce a return in the form of eggs, 
nearly every day. From an educational standpoint, they are 
more valuable to the children then other pets, because they 
combine profit with pleasure. 

BEGIN NOW! 

Any time but "too late" is a good time to start keeping 
poultry, because if they are looked after with ordinary com- 
mon sense, they will absolutely help to keep you. 




76 



$4223.00 PROFIT IN ONE YEAR 



^%*x& °\ 




"A LITTLE JOURNEY AMONG ANCONAS" 

There has been a considerable and growing demand for a complete 
book on Anconas. A book that goes back to the Origin (so far as can 
be determined) of these birds, traces their history, characteristics, ha- 
bits and lays bare the expert observations of people who have studied 
poultry for years and made profit from them. 

Such a book has been written— some of my friends who have looked over 
the manuscript tell me "as interestingly as a good novel" — it has been 
published with many illustrations (both photographic and with accurate 
sketches) and is now ready for distribution. 

It is complete and technical in its fact value but written so as to be 
readily comprehended by the student. $1.00 post paid. Special prices on 
class room quantities. 

H. CECIL SHEPPARD 

Berea, Ohio. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




002 851 193 




youf 





